Need New Menu Ideas

I need some new meal/menu ideas. I generally eat the same type of thing every day for breakfast (cereal w/milk), snacks (fruit or light cheese), and lunch (sandwich or leftovers from dinner) and I am bored with the same old same old. I eat  lunch at work every day, so my meals need to be portable. I?m just in a rut. Anyone care to share any daily menus?  My daily range is 1,500-1,600.

I'd say to check out the recipes board for some grrrrrreat recipes :D

My daily same ol' same ol' is a hard boiled egg, cup of yogurt and piece of fruit for breakfast.  Lunch is tuna or chicken mixed with mayo or mustard and some spinach and romaine lettuce in a tortilla.  Dinner is most often grilled chicken breast with a side of veggie (green beans, brocolli, or asparagus) and a side of corn or peas.  Morning and afternoon snacks are fresh fruits.

Such a simple world I live in...

I've been eating wraps for lunch lately.  Usually i put some spinach in, use salsa and sour cream for moisture, and add beans or rice, or anything else that sounds good.  I don't make these ahead of time - just bring all the inside ingredients in one container (beans, salsa, sour cream - looks gross, but oh well!) spinach in another, and tortillas in a bag.  Then I assemble them at lunchtime.  You could do the same thing with ingredients more like tacos/burritos too. 

For a while, I ate spinach salads - I ended up with a pound of spinach that needed to be eaten :-)  Someone suggested spinach with black beans and tuna, red onions (i leave these off, don't care much for raw onions), and balsamic vinegar.  It's really good! 

Sometimes I do really simple stuff like
-make a meal of cottage cheese and a bunch of fruit - mandarin oranges, pineapple, etc.  
-triscuits and tuna (leftover tuna from tuna sandwiches, so it has miracle whip in it, and usually relish too)

And like hk said - there are tons of great food ideas on the recipes/food forums :-)

Happy eating!

hey marge, for breakfast or a snack, i mix 1 serving of all bran cereal into my yogurt... it is actualy quite filling, and only about 150 cals...

for lunch or a snack, i like to have an apple with cottage cheese and some deli sliced chicken or turkey breast... usually just over 200 cals...

for lunch or dinner... a boca burger in a whole wheat pita with a slice of cheese and salsa... that a couple hundred cals, too.

just some ideas... if i thinkof others, i'll be back!

Yummm...those are all great ideas!

I've been doing wraps lately with butter lettuce. I thought I wouldn't like them & I was surprised!! Usually it's roast beef slices, salami & cheese with hot mustard. Then 1/4 c LF cottage cheese with a tomato wedge & cucumber slices. Around 250 calories.

For snacks, I like fruit salad or if I can splurge, Yoplait Custard Style yogurt with a tbsp of LF vanilla macaroon granola. The health food store also has a small bag(about 17) of chocolate covered coffee beans. It's about 170cal but it takes me 2-3 days to finish it as the beans are very sweet!!

my range is 1550 daily & I still manage to come under most days. Cereal isn't really that filling, for me anyways. I like a fried egg, slice toast w/pbutter or banana & some oj.

Good luck!!

Check out the list of The World's Healthiest Foods:

http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php

I also post a lot of ideas in my journal, you are more the welcome to check it out.

May I also suggest checking out this thread, message #18: http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/8532 .html

This is great for lunch and packs easily in a plastic container.  I like those round Ziploc containers with the screw top lid because they don't leak.

This is a complete meal in itself.  Makes 8 cups which is 6 large servings.

Three (or four) bean salad

2 cups cooked cut green beans
2 cups cooked cut wax beans
1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 cup cooked red kidney or black beans
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 cup diced celery
1/2 cup grated carrot

Mix everything in a large bowl and toss with dressing.  Refrigerate tightly covered.  Gets better the next day. 

Dressing

1/4 cup fat free Italian Dressing
1/2 tsp honey or Splenda
1 tsp dijon mustard or 1/2 tsp dry mustard powder
1 TBS olive oil

Shake in a jar until well blended.  Pour over the salad and toss.

Banging breakfast

1/4 cup eggwhites
1 tsp green onion
2 slices deli thin ham, chopped
.5 wedge laughing cow light garlic and herb cheese
2 sliced mushrooms

Dump eggwhites layer in other, fold into a delicious omlet.  Check the calories....low!

Pair this with one slice of Weight Watchers whole wheat toast with a tsp of Smuckers Sugar free preserves...Protien and carbs.  Delicious.

also great place for recipies is the body for life home page.

www.bodyforlife.com

I eat rice cakes dipped in cucumber dill hummus with carrots and celery for lunch and applesause really whenever I want to.  Sometimes my cal-count isn't high enough so I let myself splurge on cherry pop tarts.

Squash!!!  Squash is so good, and there's so many different yummy kinds! Acorn Squash, Butternut Squash, Spaghetti squash.  So good!

have a look at www.deliaonline.com - its Delia Smith's website (she's an English institution!)  There aren't many specifically low fat recipes on here, but I find if you cut down on the oil then the meals all work out around 500/600 cals a portion.

I'm eating a lot of stir frys at the moment, if you have a wok that gets really hot, you don't need much oil - the wok I have came with a recipe book that had an excellent suggestion - if the food starts to stick, add 1 tablespoon of water - it really works, no need to add more oil.

The weight watchers website has a million low fat recipes as well, but I think you have to pay to join, I used to use it when I was doing weight watchers last year.

And I firmly second kjmadill's point, I love butternut squash!